98 I. C. Ii> me II— Expedition to Mowni St. Ellas. 



IVIalaspiua's records with the present condition, the glacier.s must 

 have reached Point Esperanza, at the mouth of Disenchantment 

 bay, about 200 years ago ; and an aUowance of between 500 and 

 1 ,000 years would seem ample for the retreat of the glaciers since 

 they were at their flood. 



Reaching the topmost dome of Haenke island, a wonderful 

 panorama of snow-coVered mountains, glaciers, an.d icebergs lay 

 before us. The island occupies the position of the stage in a vast 

 amphitheatre ; the spectators are hoary mountain peaks, each a 

 monarch robed in ermine and bidding defiance to the ceaseless 

 Avar of the elements. How insignificant the wanderer who con- 

 fronts such an audience, and how weak his efforts to describe 

 such a scene ! 



From a wild cliff-enclosed valley toward the north, guarded by 

 towering pinnacles and massive cliffs, flows a great glacier, the 

 fountains of which are far back in the heart of the mountains 

 beyond the reach of vision. Having vainly sought an Indian 

 name for this ice-stream,' I concluded to christen it the Dalton 

 c/lacler, in honor of John Dalton, a miner and frontiersman now 

 living at Yakutat, who is justly considered the pioneer explorer 

 of the region. The glacier is greatly shattered and pinnacled in 

 descending its steep channel, and on reaching the sea it expands 

 into a broad ice-foot. The last steep descent is made just before 

 gaining the water, and is marked by crevasses and pinnacles of 

 magnificent proportion and beautiful color. This is one of the 

 few glaciers in the St. Elias region that has well-defined medial 

 and lateral moraines. At the bases of the cliffs on the western 

 side there is a broad, lateral moraine, and in the center, looking 

 like a winding road leading up the glacier, runs a triple-banded 

 ribbon of debris, forming a typical medial moraine. The morainal 

 material carried by the glacier is at last deposited at its foot, or 

 floated away by icebergs, and scattered far and Avide over the 

 bottom of Yakutat bay. 



The glacier expands on entering the Avater, as is the habit of 

 all glaciers AAdien unconfined, and ends in magnificent ice-cliff's 

 some two miles in length. The Avater dashing against the bases 

 of the cliffs dissolves them aAvay, and the tides tend to raise and 

 loAver the expanded ice-foot. The result is that huge masses, 

 sometimes reaching from summit to base of the cliffs, are under- 

 mined, and topple over into the sea Avith a tremendous crash. 

 OAving to the distance of the glacier from Haenke island, Ave could 



